I meant to write for IBARW and do an expose about Modern Orthodox racism, but I found myself pitifully short of anecdotal evidence and would have been forced to write something like "...sometimes Modern Orthodox Jews are racist, and it's bad." Nonetheless, be assured, dear readers, sometimes Modern Orthodox Jews are racist. And it's bad. And I believe it has more than a little to do with the fact that the Jewish community is extremely sheltered and homogenous--for purposeful, faith reasons--and that children in Modern Orthodox schools, by and large, do not have a multiethnic peer group until college [unless they attend a religious college such as Yeshiva University, in which case their peer group is largely homogenous, white, Jewish and affluent even then].

This isolation allows Modern Orthodox teens to feel safe expressing racist sentiment to their peers, and while they are often challenged this is not always the case. While I understand the faith need of Modern Orthodox schools to isolate their children in order to give them a proper Jewish education, I do find it somewhat deplorable that, by and large, the only contact Modern Orthodox schoolchildren have with other races is in the form of small talk with the janitorial staff. Despite the (for the most part) liberal values disseminated in Modern Orthodox institutions, they nonetheless become something of a breeding ground for racism--a racism that often mirrors sentiments expressed by adults in the community, a community that is fairly rife with xenophobia.I surmise that a good measure of this xenophobia is a survival tactic, disseminated in order to prevent intermarriage (the scourge of the Jewish community--dilution of the blood!); however, I do believe that intermarriage can be prevented in other, more moral ways--and if it cannot be, then perhaps the community ought to seriously reexamine itself [of course, I am a self-professed atheist whose chances of staying in the community are slim to nil--so perhaps I'm not the best authority to consult. Still, a community that can only remain coherent with the aid of xenophobic sentiment seems to be lacking something in my eyes.]

In other news...I can't believe I'm leaving to Israel on Sunday, but the roomful of clothing I labeled yesterday seems to provide some hard evidence...( more on the topic )

here are the three items on the gay talia blog agenda for today:

1. I've now seen the Dadaism exhibit at MoMA thrice (with plans to return) and, wow. It just keeps getting better. More interesting, more profound; Dada's impact on the art world keeps getting more and more apparent; names keep popping out at me, i.e., George Grosz, Otto Dix, Hannah Hoch; I keep appreciating Schwitters's aesthetic more and more; I become more and more convinced that Jean (Hans) Arp shoulda stuck to poetry and not gone into woodcutting; SUZANNE DUCHAMP, WHAT A REVELATION!; essentially, I want to BE Sophie Taeuber-Arp (wh'cause, Arp was sort of hot in his way, and she got to HANG OUT WITH THE DADAISTS and make those most excellent marionettes). I love the movies! If anyone wants to go see this exhibit with me, I will be glad to go with them. I want to return as many times as possible before September [and I get in free wh'cause I am sixteen, yay]. I wish they'd had more literature, however, as that was my favorite part of Dadaism this year. But really. DADA. What a glorious thing it is to go to a museum and emerge, hours later, feeling buoyed as you rarely do? What joy that movement brings me!

2. It's International Blog Against Racism Week apparently. So. Racism is bad. Racism is so bad because it defines people by largely irrelevant traits, i.e., skin color, etc. No one is sure whether Jews are a race, but by gum, sometimes we feel like one! Because of racism. See? Racism creates artificial borders, places undue importance on characteristics that really have very little significance. There is a certain importance to ethnic solidarity, I guess, but when it devolves into insurmountably separate cultural blocs, well, then, that invites racism in and gives it the best china, ya know? And I find that that's really prevalent in our society, that sort of separatism. Which is why it's so gratifying to work at the Congress of Racial Equality, with a determinedly multiethnic workforce and a hot Muslim French guy. perhaps I will come back to this and actually mold it into a coherent comment.

3 (less wordy): Here is a good song - it's about deism, but check the awesome trumpet part.
Here, also, is the best love song ever written. Oh, the Moldy Peaches...

ETA: In another vein, I hereby nominate The Dixie Cups's "Chapel of Love" as "Best Song To Dance In Your Undies To In The Morning." Any contestants?